The rest of the match passed with Giannis Academy trying to get a goal back to inspire some sort of late comeback. James took full precaution though, subbing the two forwards left on the pitch for some defenders and played a 7-3-0 towards the end of the match. In the end, Giannis couldn't get a goal before the referee blew his whistle signifying the end of the match.
As soon as they heard the whistle, the Giannis Academy players collapsed on the floor, looking sad and beaten up, while the opposite was the case for the Rising Stars Academy players. They started celebrating, with majority of the players jumping on Tyler and their goalkeeper.
The performance of the two players almost singlehandedly won them the match.
A few moments later, they finally released their two teammates from their endless barrage and went to shake hands with the opposition players.
All the players were then lined up and then the stars of the tournament were announced. The man of the match, the top scorer, the goalkeeper of the tournament and the player of the tournament were made to walk outside and collect plaques depicting the award they won.
Tyler ended up walking out twice as he won the player of the tournament and the man of the match award. After that, the second placed team went up to collect their silver medal, after which the Rising Stars Academy players and staff present went to get their winners medal and lift the trophy.
"You should be the one lifting this," Moses said to Tyler as he walked back to where the team was waiting, huddling while cheering. "Unfortunately, I think I'm going to look cool in the picture while lifting this so I'm just going to go ahead and lift it anyways."
Tyler laughed at Moses's comment and joined the rest of the team, crouching excitedly while Moses shook the trophy, raising it at the same time as when the rest of the team jumped.
After Moses lifted it, he passed it to Tyler who lifted it and like that the trophy was passed around. After a while, the players got tired of celebrating with it and took it back to their locker room.
Tyler had a smile on his face as he started walking towards the locker room after the award ceremony finished. He was in the middle of taking off his clothes when James called him out.
"There are some interviewers outside waiting to talk with you," James said.
Tyler was very surprised and had to put on a top as he was currently shirtless before walking out the locker room and onto the pitch where they had already put on a wall of sponsors and several reporters were waiting in front of it.
He saw a player of Giannis Academy being interviewed and waited for the interview to finish before walking up behind the collection of microphones that were currently stretched out.
"Alright. Looks like we're with the man of the day right now. Tyler Wilson, the star man of the tournament. First of all, I want to say congratulations to you. It looks like you have been named as man of the match and player of the tournament. What can you say drove you to perform at the high level that you did throughout the tournament?"
"Uh..." Tyler scratched his head. He had never been interviewed before. Sure he had watched it on television and it seemed easy enough, it wasn't. Nobody said how tough it was having to think of things to say while being put on the spot.
"I think it was just the desire to win, you know? Um... I played against a lot of good teams and I didn't want to lose out to them so, yeah. I think I just wanted to win."
"Well, you certainly did so didn't you?" another reporter replied. "Now with you being the player of the tournament and all, it's been said that you're going to be the big catch of this event. Can you tell us whether one or two clubs have already approached you prior to this match?"
"I'm sorry, I don't think that's information I'm supposed to share with the public," Tyler said.
The journalists asked him a few questions, before releasing him.
Tyler went back to the locker room, where he joined his teammates in another round of celebration. They continued celebrating until they left the stadium and went to the team's facilities and continued celebrating but for a different reason.
James had given them two weeks off to reward them for their performance so they were more excited. Well, everyone except for one person.
Tyler nearly burst into tears when he heard that he would have two weeks off, and they wouldn't have been tears of joy. Without training, then he would've had to resume the system's brutal daily exercises.
"It's just not fair," Tyler lamented inwardly as he opened his room door, half expecting to see Lenny with some half naked babe but when he entered, the room was empty... and quiet.
"Right, he's probably already left for Manchester," Tyler muttered. All of a sudden, he started to feel somber. This really could be his last days in the Rising Stars Academy. He started to feel a little sad about leaving the few friends he had made behind but it was something that needed to be done.
Before he sank too deeply into his thoughts, he heard a familiar notification.
[Ding! Mission accomplished]
[+30 stat points awarded]
[+5 bonus stat points for man of the match performance]
[Ding! 50-50 rewards activated. Host seems to be really lucky]
[+5 potential upgrade activated]
[+2 bonus potential upgraded due to man of the match performance]